Nelson Palace Theatre

• Theatre ID
  2015
• Built / Converted
  1909
• Current state
  Extant
• Current use
  disused (closed as bingo, July 2009)
• Address
  Leeds Road, Nelson, Lancashire, BB9 9TD, England

Details

Opening on 13 December 1909, the Palace Theatre & Hippodrome seated c.2,000. The architects were the Liverpool and Burnley practice of Matthew, Watson, Landless & Pearse. John Moorhouse & Son were accountants for the Nelson Palace & Hippodrome Company, and William Benson the managing director. The Palace was a variety theatre until 1922 when it became a super cinema. It then went over to repertory until the 1940s, later becoming a bingo hall, as which it closed in July 2009. The exterior of the theatre was altered for road widening in 1979, removing the corner square-towered entrance and shops, and leaving only the brick side walls of the auditorium. The interior, designed and decorated by plasterwork specialists A R Dean & Co, has slightly curved balconies, their fronts divided into panels with fine plasterwork cartouches. The upper balcony directly abuts the side walls, with the decorative treatment of the front continued along the walls as panels and cartouches. The first balcony has short slips running into the principal visual feature of the auditorium: a single box on each side set between giant ionic columns supporting an open-topped segmental pediment, all richly decorated. Rectangular proscenium with an enriched frame. Flat ceiling with an enriched circular central panel and plasterwork bolection mouldings. Although the level of the stalls floor has been altered and the stage has a false ceiling, the theatre could be restored to theatre or alternative use. The theatre is threatened with demolition (2009) having been purchased by the Local Authority for use as a temporary car park, as part of a Masterplan for the town centre of Nelson.

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• Other names
  Nelson Palace and Hippodrome
• Events
  • 1909 - 0 Design/Construction: opened 13 December.
    • A R Dean & Co - Decoration
    • Matthew, Watson, Landless & Pearse - Architect
• Capacities
  • Original: c.2,000
• Listings
  • Grade Not listed
• Dimensions
  • Proscenium width: 9.75m (32ft)